(Reuters) -France’s Sanofi said on Thursday that it expects annual sales to grow by high single-digit percentage, helped by strong demand for its anti-inflammatory drug Dupixent, as well as vaccines and newer treatments.
It had previously forecast annual sales to grow by mid-to-high single-digit percentage at constant currency rates.
The drugmaker confirmed it expects earnings to grow by a low double-digit percentage this year, but said the forecast now includes all expenses from its newly acquired businesses.
Sanofi has significantly amped up its R&D expenditure in recent years and plans to be more active with acquisitions as it looks to build its next wave of growth drivers beyond its asthma drug Dupixent.
It recently closed its up to $9.5 billion acquisition of Blueprint Medicines, a maker of rare immunology disease treatments.
But investor hopes remain high for the anti-inflammatory drug Dupixent, the company’s main growth driver, especially since it was approved for a common lung condition called chronic obstructive pulmonary disease last year.
Sales of Dupixent, which it makes with partner Regeneron, rose 21.1% to 3.83 billion euros ($4.38 billion), compared to 3.74 billion euros expected on average by analysts in a company-provided poll.
Chief Financial Officer François-Xavier Roger said that outside of the U.S., sales of the drug exceeded 1 billion euros.
“We are very confident in our sales target of around 22 billion euros in 2030,” Roger said about the drug.
Quarterly business operating income, excluding one-off items, came in at 2.46 billion euros, below the average analyst estimate of 2.57 billion euros in a poll posted on the company’s website.
Sanofi said higher research costs and higher profit sharing with its partner Regeneron weighed on its earnings during the quarter.
Vaccines sales rose a currency-adjusted 10% to 1.21 billion euros in the quarter, ahead of a 1.14 billion euro analyst consensus.
($1 = 0.8740 euros)
(Reporting by Bhanvi Satija in Bengaluru; Editing by Mrigank Dhaniwala)
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